Benizi Santamaria, Time Matters (PORTRAIT 2024)

A young man stood in front of me at the Train Station. Seeing that I had a camera, he asked if I did video. The way he gripped his jumper around his neck caught my attention. I love the language of the hands; after all photographs are silent things and it's the hands and eyes that give it voice. I asked my potential model if he could stand in the light. The light was poor especially with the sun going down fast and I did not have a flash with me. I took several shots, opening up my aperture to the max at f1.8 on my 20mm lens, lifting the iso to 2000. Even then the shutter was a slow 1/40 but with my model standing still, I managed to get a few with the eyes sharp and in focus. In my mind, portraiture is not about it's technicalities of camera settings and whatever you do in post. That's easy. Friendships and connections can be fleeting things and may exist only briefly. As the man with the camera, I try to make and hold this very connection if only briefly. What appears on my screen after that moment passes and when I am scrolling through the results on my train ride home can be very satisfying... which is why I have captioned my entry "Time Matters". Put in the time to make your connection. That's all that matters.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.